Last week I talked about God’s drawing grace, that God takes the first move because we were born in sin and were dull to spiritual things.
This week, I’d like to talk about another aspect of theology: predestination. Does God predestine individuals to be saved or not saved? Does God set our eternal course to either heaven or hell before we are even born?
This kind of predestination is rooted in some sections of evangelical Christianity. There are degrees with how far people want to take it. I’d like to give another perspective which I believe has the weightier biblical evidence.
1. Predestination does not negate real human choice.
God’s sovereignty, his power, is an attribute of God.
Some things are absolute. God wills them and they are done–things like creation, the flood, the coming of Jesus, and, yet to happen, the second coming of Jesus.
But there are some things God wills but doesn’t force. This is called God’s permissive will. For example, God says “be holy for I am holy,” but many people chose to be the opposite of holy. He gives the ten commandments, but many disobey them.
And this includes salvation. God wants all people to be saved (He is gracious, generous and loving) but many, perhaps most, refuse it. He wills it but doesn’t force it. We note the saying in Ezekiel 33:11, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” We read of Jesus dying on the cross for the sins, not just for those already saved, but for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). We read that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4) and that the second coming is being delayed is so that more can be saved, because God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” (2 Peter 3:9).
God desires all to be saved, but not all are saved. God, in his sovereignty, decided to leave space in the universe for real human choice.
It was his sovereign will to do this. Is anyone going to tell Him he can’t do this?
Without the allowance for real human choices the commandments, exhortations and warnings found in the Bible are meaningless.
Then, we may ask, if individuals are not predestined to heaven or hell, then what is predestined?
2. God predestined a way of salvation, not individual destinies.
The book of Romans deals with the issue of salvation more than any other Bible book. In the center section, Romans 3:24-11:36, the Apostle Paul talks about grace.
He looks at grace–God’s free gift of salvation through Christ–as if looking at various facets of a diamond.
- In chapter 4 he tells us that this was the way Abraham was saved–through belief in God, not works.
- In chapter 5 he states that Christ brought the remedy for the sin which Adam brought into the world.
- Chapter 6 shows us that this grace comes from Christ’s death.
- Chapter 7 shows how the cross makes us dead to the law (the old, inadequate way).
- Chapter 8 tells us of the great benefits that come from this salvation by grace and being filled with the Spirit.
- In chapter 9 he says that grace is God’s absolute choice. It emphasizes that grace is God’s foreordained plan.
Chapter 9 is really a pivotal passage on God’s sovereignty. Some read it and assume that it says that God hardens the hearts of those predestined for hell. But a careful reading of the chapter will show that it is not talking about individuals but about a way of salvation. Paul is continuing with the theme he has been writing about in the previous five chapters: grace. Here, he emphasizes that this way of salvation is God’s absolute will, no one can change it. If someone opposes it, they are opposing God. God will not change it for them. If someone expects to get saved by works, they are going to be disappointed…and worse than disappointed: ruined for eternity.
Romans 9 is a tough chapter. I see it as a kind of hammer, a rough instrument used to make hard-headed people believe in a fact. Salvation by works was deeply imbedded in some people’s minds. Some were reluctant to give it up. Paul uses strong words and strong arguments to say that salvation by works will not get you saved, it will not make you acceptable to God.
So this is what is absolutely predestined: not the eternal destiny of individuals, but a way of salvation.
You have to be in the grace group, or you won’t make it to heaven. Get in that group. Get on that ship. It will take you to the right destination. Don’t fight it. It was God’s plan all along. It is a mystery that has been revealed.
The good news is that anyone can be saved this way. It’s God’s will. His predestined will. And it is favorable to us.
Predestination has been a source of controversy in the Church since the fifth century.
In my humble opinion, which is aligned with Early Christian thought, is that those whom God predestined to salvation are those whom He saw would make proper use of their will, and freely choose to accept God‘s gift of grace, and those whom He predestines to damnation, are those whom He foresaw would reject his grace (a perfect example of this is Judas Iscariot).
The early Church Fathers, like St. Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century, agreed that “God did not predestinate them before He knew them, but He did predestinate the reward of those whose merits he foreknew.”
Predestination is a profound expression of God’s purpose for all creation.
During the Reformation, John Calvin introduced his doctrine of Double Predestination, where God specifically selects and predestination some to salvation & others to damnation.